Chairs:
Özlü Aran, PhD, Postdoc, REID Lab, Center for Cognitive and Brain Health at Northeastern University, Boston, United States, Session Chair
Symposium Discussant: Megan R. Gunnar, PhD, Regents Professor, Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Psychology, University of Minnesota
Presenters:
- Brie Reid, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Developmental Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, United States
- Jenalee R. Doom, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Developmental Psychology, University of Denver, United States
- Camelia E. Hostinar, Ph.D. Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, United States
- Nicole M. Talge, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Michigan State University, United States; Department of Clinical Research, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
- Elysia Poggi Davis, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of Denver, United States
- Jamie M. Lawler, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology, Eastern Michigan University, United States
- Emma K. Adam, Ph.D. Edwina S. Tarry Professor of Human Development and Social Policy, Northwestern University, United States
Symposium Description:
It is well-established that early life stress has long-lasting consequences for both mental and physical health across the life span. One of the biggest contributions to our understanding of stress in children and its long-term effects comes from Dr. Megan Gunnar who spent over a half century investigating stress biology and its influence on neural and behavioral development. Dr. Gunnar is a pioneer in stress research through her work on the development of stress reactivity and its social regulation in typically developing children and adolescents, the study of previously institutionalized children, and the stress-recalibration hypothesis. This symposium showcases Dr. Gunnar’s legacy by bringing her former trainees to present their work that covers topics of developmental psychobiology including psychosocial stress, nutrition, immune system, cardiovascular health, sleep, emotional and cognitive health, and neurodevelopment from pregnancy through adolescence. First, Dr. Reid will cover her work encompassing the intersection of stress and nutrition during pregnancy followed by Dr. Doom who will talk about stress and cardiovascular health in pregnancy, childhood and adolescence. Then, Dr. Hostinar will introduce the loneliness model among adolescents as a function of psychobiological factors followed by Dr. Talge who will share her work on risk for neurodevelopmental disorders. The second half will cover prevention and intervention work starting with Dr. Davis to share her work on reducing stress during pregnancy. Dr. Lawler will present findings from an intervention targeting emotion-regulation among preschool-aged children and Dr. Adam will share findings from an intervention on ethnic identity promotion and stress response among adolescents. Finally, Dr. Gunnar will discuss these findings in the context of her research program with notes and suggestion on where the field is moving. Together, this symposium, as a manifestation on the power of women in science, aims to highlight Dr. Gunnar’s impact on the field of developmental psychobiology.
List of abstracts and presenters
- STRESS, INFLAMMATION, AND NUTRIENT METABOLISM DURING PREGNANCY, Brie M. Reid, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Developmental Psychology, Northeastern University
Dr. Brie Reid’s research integrates developmental stress physiology with nutritional sciences, rigorously combining psychobiology and nutrition to support child development globally. She examines how growing bodies and brains respond to their environments through studies of endocrine function, neurodevelopment, immunity, nutrient metabolism, and behavior from prenatal periods to adulthood. In graduate school (and beyond!) with Megan Gunnar, Reid investigated the dual impacts of early deprivation and malnutrition in previously institutionalized children, focusing on catch-up growth, HPA axis functioning, cardiometabolic health, and immune system changes. Her graduate career also involved collaborative projects facilitated by Dr. Gunnar, including research on iron and inflammatory pathways in a Chilean cohort led by Drs. Sheila Gahagan and Betsy Lozoff. Currently, Dr. Reid explores how psychosocial stress during pregnancy influences child development through nutrition-stress interactions. Her recent work has examined placental leptin methylation effects on newborn cortisol reactivity and how maternal cortisol output in pregnancy affects nutritional status in mothers and offspring. Reid will present emerging work from her lab, which is focused on investigating mechanisms involving increased inflammation and altered nutrient metabolism in the context of stress.
- STRESS, SLEEP, AND CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH FROM PREGNANCY TO ADOLESCENCE, Jenalee R. Doom, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Developmental Psychology, University of Denver
Dr. Jenalee Doom’s research program focuses on the pathways by which early life stress influence mental and physical health across the lifespan. Her recent research examines how psychosocial stress and family-level factors affect cardiovascular health and health behaviors as early as the prenatal period and into adulthood. With supportive graduate mentorship from Dr. Megan Gunnar, she investigated how early life stress and supportive social relationships affect stress biology in children and adolescents. Inspired by Dr. Gunnar’s interdisciplinary and developmental approach to science, Dr. Doom has collaborated with pediatricians, obstetricians, biostatisticians, geneticists, and public health experts to answer questions about how both stress and protective factors are biologically and behaviorally embedded to influence long-term health. She will present her current research which examines 1) how prenatal maternal sleep and mental health influence maternal and offspring cardiovascular health, and 2) how adverse and positive childhood experiences shape adolescent cardiovascular health and health behaviors.
- STRESS AND A PSYCHOBIOLOGICAL MODEL OF LONELINESS IN ADOLESCENCE, Camelia E. Hostinar, Ph.D. Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis
Dr. Camelia Hostinar’s research program examines the mechanisms by which childhood socioeconomic disadvantage and other forms of early-life adversity shape later development and health. She has studied protective factors, such as social support, that buffer children and adolescents against stress and subsequent physical or mental health problems. Under Dr. Gunnar’s supportive mentorship, her doctoral studies examined the cognitive and socio-emotional sequelae of institutionalization experiences in childhood and the social buffering of the HPA axis in children and adolescents. Extending this work, Dr. Hostinar will present ongoing research and recent results from a longitudinal study of adolescent loneliness that tests the “vicious cycle of loneliness” model developed by Dr. Hostinar and her students (Hang et al., 2023, Child Development Perspectives). The model proposes that loneliness develops as a function of personality, social relationships, and alterations in adrenocortical, autonomic, inflammatory, and oxytocinergic activity. Preliminary evidence supporting this model will be presented.
- NEURODEVELOPMENTAL RISK FACTORS AND AUDITORY BRAINSTEM RESPONSES: INTERDISCIPLINARY INSIGHTS, Nicole M. Talge, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Michigan State University
Dr. Nicole Talge aims to understand how biological and environmental factors contribute to the etiology of neurodevelopmental disorders. The goal of these efforts is to improve the identification of children who can be supported by timely access to early intervention services. One of Dr. Nicole Talge’s most formative experiences under Dr. Megan Gunnar’s mentorship involved participating in her Early Experience, Stress Neurobiology, and Prevention Science network meetings as a graduate student trainee. These semi-annual meetings brought together an interdisciplinary team of investigators who leveraged their complementary expertise to advance knowledge about early experience and its multi-level impacts on child health and well-being. Dr. Nicole Talge has strived to carry these lessons in interdisciplinary team science forward and apply them to her own work, which at present investigates the etiologic and/or prognostic relevance of auditory brainstem responses to neurodevelopmental disorder risk. Her presentation will describe preliminary findings that address this idea.
- STRESS REDUCTION IN PREGNANCY TO PROMOTE MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH, Elysia Poggi Davis, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of Psychology, University of Denver
Dr. Elysia Poggi Davis’ research investigates the early origins of lifespan health and disease with an emphasis on the prenatal period. This research leverages collaborative translational models to better understand mechanisms and pathways by which early life experiences impact health. The broad goal of this research program is to work in collaboration with community partners to leverage empirical research to promote parent-child health. With amazing mentorship from Professor Megan Gunnar, Dr. Davis began her career investigating the role of prenatal exposure to synthetic glucocorticoids on newborn stress regulation. This launched her interest in investigating the prenatal origins of health. Dr. Davis will present her current intervention and prevention work in which she seeks to examine how reducing prenatal maternal distress may alter physiological pathways and exert intergenerational benefits for maternal-child health.
- STRESS AND AN INTERVENTION TO PROMOTE EMOTION REGULATION IN PRESCHOOLERS, Jamie M. Lawler, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology, Eastern Michigan University
Dr. Jamie Lawler’s research program is grounded in developmental psychopathology and focuses on the impact of early life stress on the socio-emotional development of children and on interventions to promote resilience. Her work examines developmental processes at multiple levels of analysis, incorporating biomarkers of stress, dyadic parent-child interactions, and environmental influences on parenting and child development. Under the mentorship of Dr. Megan Gunnar, Dr. Lawler investigated the socio-emotional outcomes of early institutionalization, the buffering effect of quality parenting, and the efficacy of executive function training and mindfulness-based interventions on previously institutionalized children’s self-regulation. Her current work continues these themes, examining self-regulation development longitudinally over early childhood and testing interventions designed to support positive development in high-risk children. She will present on preliminary outcomes of a dyadic, emotion-regulation promoting intervention for preschool-aged children.
- STRESS AND AN INTERVENTION TO PROMOTE ENTHNIC IDENTITY IN ADOLESCENCE, Emma K. Adam, Ph.D. Edwina S. Tarry Professor of Human Development and Social Policy, Northwestern University
Dr. Emma Adam’s research examines dynamic and bidirectional interactions between social experiences and biological and health processes as they occur over multiple time scales (moments, days, months, and years) in the context of everyday life in naturalistic settings. Dr. Adam’s primary approach has been using multilevel growth-curve modeling to link adolescent stress experiences (measured using diary data) to the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. She learned everything she knows about HPA axis activity from Dr. Megan Gunnar whom she was lucky enough to be mentored by during her PhD and beyond. Dr. Adam’s latest research on “stress disparities” has helped to identify the presence of and uncover the processes by which racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in stress biology emerge. Her current intervention studies seek approaches to reducing those disparities; she will present findings on the impact of an ethnic identity promotion intervention on HPA axis activity in a diverse sample of adolescents.